Clyde v East Stirlingshire

Recap

Clyde dropped even further off the pace at the bottom of the Irn Bru Third Division as East Stirlingshire left Broadwood with a smash and grab of all three points.

The Bully Wee changed their starting line-up, with last week’s goalscorer, Stuart Mills, replacing John Stewart up front. Neil McGowan also replaced the suspended Kevin Finlayson in a change that saw a switch to a back three.

Clyde started reasonably well and Nicki Paterson set his sights with a long range shot that whistled just past the post. The next effort came from his fellow midfielder, John Sweeney, but his 20 yard volley was blocked by Paul Hay with goalkeeper Michael Andrews struggling to cover his far post.

However, the consistency with previous matches continued as the away team took the lead with their first venture into Bully Wee territory. Clyde failed to react quickly enough to a short corner kick and although Jordan Allan blocked his initial effort on goal, David Dunn reacted quickest to fire high into the net.

Understandably this led to some frustration and this was added to as Paterson saw his header from Waddell’s free kick blocked on the line. However, the Bully Wee did manage to get a leveller with a terrific goal in the 21st minute. Captain Adam Strachan played a neat one-two with trialist Scott Anson before slipping the ball into Mills and the young striker made no mistake with a low left-footed shot past Andrews.

Clyde continued to have all of the possession but the frustrating tactics of their opposition meant that chances were at a premium. Indeed, the Shire raced back in front with a well worked goal of their own. Some neat football down the left-hand side released Scott Johnson to the bye-line and from his low cross Kevin Cawley tapped into the empty net.

Before the half-time interval, Clyde created one chance to get back level. Some great play down the right hand side left Strachan in space but from his cut-back, noone was able to guide the ball home.

Half-time gave East Stirlingshire the chance to consolidate and the early part of the second half contained very little in the way of chances. Indeed, Allan was to be untested for the remainder of the match as all of the play headed towards the away goal, with the best effort being a long range shot from Alan Lithgow that was comfortably stopped.

The introduction of Stewart and Hadyn Cochrane in place of Anson and Strachan gave Clyde a renewed momentum and from Stewart’s flick-on, Paterson once more fired over the bar. This was followed by the best effort of the half, as Sweeney neatly flicked the ball over two Shire players before curling in a long range shot that Andrews superbly stopped.

Mills then saw a low cross deflected just past the post but the final key moment of the match came when Stewart picked up a straight red card for a suspected elbow on an East Stirlingshire player.